Week 35

Hi there Shanon!
Happy week 35! You know, I just can't believe we're almost in September, that is just amazing to me. I think time just flies by faster and faster for each passing year! A year now is like those lovely long summer vacations when you were a kid :)
This week as been an incredibly intense one and it raced by at an incredible speed. The kids came back to school on Monday and that means "business as usual" and very much to do. I've worked late the entire week, feeling very stressed out. Since I work at a very small school the teachers have to do things that are done by administrative personell at bigger schools, but usually things get a bit more mellow when we head into the third or fourth week so I'll just have to hang on until then. I also managed, for the third year in a row, to get a cold one week after the kids started. I had a sore throat on Friday and this weekend I've mainly been lying in the sofa, watching movies. I also have to admit that I'm prone to complaining when I'm ill, which my husband teases me for. I guess that's actually a good thing, having someone that (in a humorous way) will remind you of your shortcomings, it makes you aware of them so they don't take over too much :)
Since this week has been low on time and inspiration and since I was ill once I had some free time I didn't really know what to shoot at first. Then, at Saturday afternoon, I spotted some truly beautiful light coming in through the balcony door. I also spotted my new jeans hanging on the clotheshorse (I looked that word up, so I hope it's the correct one!) after I washed them and I decided to combine the two elements by dragging the clotheshorse to the balcony door. The result was a photo of my new jeans :) I personally really like the way denim looks close up, the structure of the fabric and the different tones. Maybe I was also inspired by having just watched the lastest episode of Project Runway :)
Anyway, I hope you have a lovely week!
xoxo
Moa

Hello Moa and Happy Week 35!
I've been thinking about you and how school is starting around the world. It makes me sort of miss the nervous excitement of heading back to school when I was young. All the new clothes, new crayons/pens/erasers, new book-bag, and often new hairstyle. =) And how by the end of the year I'd be so attached to my classroom and teacher that I'd cry on the last day, not wanting to move on. Do you have any of those? Cry babies, like me? Hehe
This week we walked to the falls with some friends and ate sea food at the restaurant there, called SeaSalt. I had a delicious craw roll. Everything about it was perfection, and I'm not just talking the craw roll, but the ice tea, the weather, the sound of the falls, and the live music playing while we sat out on the patio.
By the end we were walking home in the dark. (There was a long line waiting to order!) But that was comforting, in it's own way, walking home in the darkness. Then we sat around our fire-pit in the backyard and laughed at the dumb things we all say to entertain each other. =)
I forgot my camera on our walk to eat, but I did pick these zinnias the next day, and they do a great job representing the colors in my food. So there you go! It may not be a sandwich full of craw fish, but even if it's not as delicious, it's probably prettier. ; )
Xoxo,
Shanon

Week 34

Hello there Shanon!
I hope your week has been good. My week has been pretty intense, since I started working on Monday. I've been pretty wiped out during the evenings, just hanging out at home and relaxing. I have done some fun things though, two of which are shopping-related. On Wednesday we went to buy a new lamp for the livingroom. We got a really nice one the Christmas before last, but there was a problem with it so we returned it. We ended up ordering a really cool lamp that's kind of a huge purple lampshade hanging from the ceiling. I can't wait until it arrives!
Today I headed to a store nearby to check out the fall fashion. I always feel like I need some new, fun clothes to appreciate the arrival of fall. That way I can trick myself into forgetting that I'm sad that summer is taking its leave. I found lots of nice things in the store, almost more than I could carry to the dressing room. In the end I bought like two pairs of pants, a skirt and some tops. Now I can't wait for it to get a bit cooler so I can start bundle up :)
My postcard this week is of a pretty little thing I bought in Stockholm last week. I found it in a store that was basically my idea of heaven, lots of fun colourful things :) I'm not exactly sure what we're going to use it for yet (but that hasn't stopped anyone from buying something, right?). It can either be for salt or sugar or something else that (preferably) starts with an "s" and that you can sprinkle :)
Happy week 34!
xoxo
Moa

Hello Moa!
I hope your August has been going great!
This week my sister flew in from San Diego for a visit. We went out for sushi-- but of course I picked a place I'd never been to before and we drove around for ages looking for it! Then we went to a Twins game (The Minnesota Twins are a professional baseball team. The "Twins" stands for the twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, that are separated by the Mississippi river.) in their new stadium, which was great. The food was good too!
A few days later we hung out at the lake. My favorite place is laying at the end of the dock, with my feet in the water, looking up at the clouds. My dad said he wants to put a bench in down there, but if it interferes with my laying around, then I'm opposed to it! =P
The next day I shot my cousin's high school graduation pics. I've actually never done such a thing, so I was nervous, but I did a lot of planning, scouting, etc. and she was a pro! It would be hard to mess up any shot that included her blue eyes and perfect smile. ; )
How is it that August is almost over? So crazy.
Xoxo,
Shanon

Week 33

Hello Shanon!
I hope you've had a great week! Mine has been fun but very intense, it involved travelling over 2100 kilometres (which is over 1300 miles). We left on Wednesday morning and drove to my mom's and her husband's place. It wasn't in the original plan to go there, but it was very nice all the same. She lives about 560 kilometres (350 miles) sout of us, which means that the weather was much warmer than here. The downside to living in the north of Sweden is that summer starts later and ends faster than in the south, I'd say the difference is a couple of weeks both in the beginning and the end which makes a big difference. Anyway, we left a kind of cool Umeå and arrived in the evening to a warm and pleasant Falun. We ate pizza in their greenhouse and talked about how much they had done in their garden make-over since we left them after our last visit, and it was all very cozy.
The day after that we left for Stockholm. On the way there I saw a traffic sign that informed us about an upcoming resting place called "The dala horse". I knew I had to check that one out so I made Martin head off the freeway and as I suspected there was an enormous dala horse on the resting place. I actually googled it just now, and this one is apparently the worlds largest dala horse - it's 13 metres high! I felt like a real tourist when I snapped shots of it, but I thought I had to show it to you :) We did lots more this week like going shopping in extremely hot weather and go to my cousins wedding (plus riding in the car a lot), but I'll tell you more about that another time :)
Take care!
xoxo
Moa

Hello lovely Moa!
My postcard is going to be short and sweet this week. My weekend dufflebag. =)
We drove out of town to see our new nephew, Jacob. Ben's sister had her second baby, a son, so clearly we needed to check him out! Hehe
On our way back home, even though it was super windy, we decided to stop at the lake to see my family. Even windy days are good at the lake! =) The waves were crashing over the dock and so we stayed inside and played a few quick hands of cards. Of course we took off once I was winning. Hah!
Lots of hugs to you!
xoxo,
Shanon

Week 32

Hello Shanon!
I had the exact same feeling as last week when I was sitting down to write this postcard: what on earth have I been doing this week?! After thinking about it I've been able to recall a few things, but somehow the days have just flown into eachother :)
After a few days of rainy weather we had some sunshine on Thursday and we decided to hit the beach. We drove off to a beach that is about a 30 minute drive away from our home. Last time we went there the whole place was covered in a thick fog when we arrived and we had to turn the car around and go someplace else (losing lots of valuable tanning/bathing time!). This time we had been there for an hour or two when the exact same thing happened. I got very annoyed and decided never to go back to this particular beach, even though it was a very cozy place. On the way home we stopped at a lake, but it just wasn't warm enough to be a perfect beach-day so we went home instead.
I'm beginning to feel that there won't be anymore lazy days at the beach this summer. I always feel a bit melancholy at the end of summer when the weather gets a bit cooler and school and work starts up again. I always want to hang on to the feelings and the memories of those warm, sunny days when you're free and can do whatever you feel like. Some people love the freshness of everything starting up and being new, but I'm more prone to wanting to freeze time at its best :) I try to motivate myself by thinking about the cozy aspects of autumn, like lighting candles and taking long walks among yellow and orange forests but I haven't managed to feel motivated yet... :) One thing that I've already gotten some use for, due to the cooler nights, is the quilt that you can see on my postcard. We bought it earlier this summer in a little boutique in the town where my mom lives. I had seen that exact quilt many months ago here in Umeå, but only a full size one for a bed, and fell completely in love with it. They were going to order the smaller one, but when it came it was the wrong one. After searching through every interior decorating store that I've passed, plus the ones online I had almost given up hope when I suddenly stumbled upon it and you can imagine the happiness I felt! :) That pretty quilt is the one thing that can make me feel that the slow approach of autumn isn't so horrible... :)
I wish you a happy week 32!
xoxo
Moa

Hello Moa!
I hope the first week of August treated you well!
When summer rolls into it's last month, it lights a fire under me to get certain things done while there's still time. This week I drove up north to visit a friend that I've known since 1st grade. It was very spur of the moment-- I think I gave her two days notice!
I think we talked NONSTOP. =)
We went out to eat at a place neither of us had been before and indulged in cheese stuffed dates wrapped in bacon among other things at a place in Duluth called the Zeitgeist Arts Cafe. The next day we headed back into town for lunch at a familiar place called Sara's Table (but back in the day, it was a market and butcher called Taryn's) and had all kinds of good treats including an apricot chicken salad sandwich and sweet potato fries. Yum!
Before the short visit came to an end we made a trip through a vintage shop where I picked up this handkerchief. I passed up a typewriter, a milk bottle, and a big metal fan. I figured there will come a day for those things. A simple hankie would do. =)
It was a wonderful time and on my way home I was overcome with happiness. It pays to take advantage of these last weeks of summer and do something out of the ordinary!
xoxo,
Shanon

Week 31

Hi Shanon!
I hope you're doing great over in Minnesota! This week I actually had difficulty choosing what postcard to send you, since we've done so many fun things :) That's a luxurious problem though, don't you agree? :) In the end I decided to send you this one of a bowl full of red currant. Martin and I were heading home from our closest little grocery store the other night when I discovered that we have bushes of red currant on the common of our housing cooperative. Since we own our apartment I figured we owned part of the bushes too, so we rushed up and got a bowl and some scissors. In about 10 minutes we had picked berries enough to fill the entire bowl, and I was really happy about that since I love red currant. Martin spotted a bush of white currant as well, and while I removed all the twigs and such he went out and picked a little bowl full of that. Red and white currant reminds me so much of my late grandparents' place. We used to visit them in the summer when I was a kid and they had several bushes of red, white and black currant. My sister and I used to pick berries and eat straight from the bush and I thought it tasted so good (only the red and white though, I don't like eating the black ones "raw"). My grandmother had a horseshoe-shaped flowerbed filled with lots of pretty flowers and I think that's where my love for peonies began... :)
Some of the other things we've been doing this week is playing with a lovely puppy and going out by boat to a very pretty island in the archipelago, but I'll tell you more about that some other time :)
Have a great week!
xoxo
Moa

Hi Moa!
I'm writing this postcard in a sleepy haze after the art festival this past weekend. I spent all last week in mad preparation for an art show/music festival in a park here in Minneapolis. It was in a neat neighborhood full of great brick buildings and loaded with trees. I always over prepare, and have way more than I need of everything. That even includes the drinks and food I stashed in a cooler to get my through the two days!
Thankfully it was only a tad hot, but no rain! Our tables were under a tent, but our chairs didn't quite fit, so we hung out behind it on a big rug with pink folding chairs. I moved my chair around all afternoon trying to keep myself in the pieces of shade from the trees. =)
I had to get a shot of the bunting I used to decorate our tent. The trees supplied great bokeh for you in the background, and the blue structure coming up from the bottom is actually the tops of a playground that was behind us. We were entertained by little kids all weekend. There was one little girl in a bumble bee dress. You would have loved it! I wish I could have snapped a shot of that. =)
As we say good bye to July, I'm wishing you a happy August!
xoxo,
Shanon